This invention relates to batch purification of water by freezing the water into ice and by melting the ice, and more particularly to the method and means for optimizing the operating parameters, including the surface area of the evaporator, the freezing time, the thickness of ice, the depth of the batch volume of water to be purified, the volumetric capacity, the cost per gallon, and the like.
Certain known water purification systems use freeze chambers and dynamic conditions to continuously form ice crystals in or from chilled water, and then to segregate the ice crystals from the chilled water for separate processing. The relationships between the evaporation temperature of the refrigerant, the temperature and effective area of the freeze plate, the compressor capacity, thermal conduction coefficient of ice, and the like, were not explored for optimum conditions in such systems.
In these conventional systems, the quantity of water purified by the process (i.e., volumetric capacity) was considered to be related to the compressor capacity, or to the refrigerant evaporation temperature, or to the thermal conductivity of ice, without appropriate consideration given to optimizing the operating efficiency of the system.